Nature never ceases to amaze me. No matter how much I learn I don’t have to look very far to find out it stuff I never would have dreamed.

For instance, in school we were taught that the heart is the strongest muscle in the body, but seems as if that’s not right, your tongue is strongest.

Speaking of tongues, crocodiles can’t stick theirs out; I don’t know about alligators.

Echoes are like shadows, everything has one, right? Wrong! Duck quacks don’t echo, but no one knows why.

Come summer when you’re scratching away at those pesky mosquito bites, just remember, it really is a bite, because mosquitoes have teeth.

Summer also brings butterflies for your viewing pleasure. Butterflies love the nectar, but did you know they taste with their feet?

While we’re on the subject of feet, whether you have two or four you can jump—as long as you aren’t an elephant. Elephants are the only animal that can’t jump.

One final human fact that you can verify yourself the next time you have a cold—it’s impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.

See you tomorrow for a look at how insanely smart hiring creates stars and boosts retention.

Image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/s_fox/358204689/

Sometimes we amaze ourselves. Not because someone else says something, but because we revisit something we did a week or a month or longer in the past and we see it from the outside—and we are amazed.

We look at it and marvel; the quality and execution impresses; the inherent value surprises; and we revel in the fact that it is our creation.

It doesn’t matter what it is, big or small; whether it was produced at work or elsewhere; it doesn’t even matter if anyone else will ever see it.

We look and we are amazed.

This happens to me when I read something I wrote a month, a year, a decade ago. Not everything, but more than I would expect.

It doesn’t matter if anyone else agrees or says anything, although it’s great when they do, but I read and am amazed.

Today I want to share my amazement with you.

A few months ago I received an email from the editor of The Conference Board Review inviting me to submit an article for the next issue.

The Conference Board Review is the quarterly magazine of The Conference Board, the world’s preeminent business membership and research organization. Founded in 1976, TCB Review is a magazine of ideas and opinion that raises tough questions about leading-edge issues at the intersection of business and society.

And not just for the online version, but to appear in the actual magazine.

When I opened the hard copy and read my article that is when the real amazement hit.

The article is called Management vs. Leadership and is the second of four articles on leadership. I hope you’ll take time to read them all, then come back and comment.

One more thing, just for the thrill of it, review things you did in the past and be amazed.

Your comments—priceless

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Image credit: The Conference Board